• Blogging,  The Complexities of Life

    How I’m Prepping for 2017

    The Recovering Pessimist: How I'm Prepping for 2017 -- I love going through the process of planning for the upcoming year. It allows me to reflect on the current year and make the necessary adjustments. Some of the things mentioned in this year's blog post are similar to last year's with some new things added. Do you plan for the upcoming year? What is your process? | www.therecoveringpessimist.me #amwriting #recoveringpessimist #optimisticpessimistI love writing about my preparation process for the upcoming year. Many of the things in this year’s post were mentioned in last year’s post. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it right?

    Without further adieu, let’s begin, shall we?

    Create theme for 2017

    Having a theme really sets the tone for how I approach the upcoming year. Throughout the year I’ve repeated the same phrase over and over as a reminder to myself and friends when life threw us a curve ball.

    Then I had a lightbulb moment. I could make this phrase my theme for 2017 (I”ll disclose the theme in a later post). One less thing for me to work on. Yay!

    Vision Board

    I created my first vision board last year after hearing folks talk about how vision boards helped them with the manifestation of their goals, aspirations, etc. They were spot on. Many of the things I posted on my vision board actually happened.

    Questlove/Giphy.com
    Questlove/Giphy.com

    This year, I want to take things up a notch with my vision board. I want to take a photo of my vision board, print the photo, and put the photo on the inside cover of my Inkwell Press liveWELL planner. That way, I can keep my vision board with me and stay on task. Genius!

    Planning Blog Content Ahead of Time

    This year, I finally decided to create an editorial calendar using Google Sheets. I have a place to keep track of all the blog posts (and their permalinks) I’ve written for the year broken down by month. Planning blog posts that are part of a series (e.g., Back to Center, Wisdom Wednesday, etc.) is way easier for me. If you don’t already have some sort of content calendar in place, get one and save yourself the stress.

    Write Goals Down

    Each year, I have major goals that I want to accomplish. Last year, I used MindMeister to create a visual for all of my goals. It was really pretty to look at, but it wasn’t effective. I also made goal cards for my major goals, which worked initially. However, I stopped looking at them regularly, so that ended up not being too effective.

    The whole point of making goals is to accomplish them right?

    Exactly!

    This year, I decided to keep track of my goals using my 2017 Inkwell Press liveWELL planner. This weekly planner has a lot of areas throughout the planner to keep track of my goals on a yearly and monthly basis. And since I look at my planner several times a day, housing my goals in the planner would be a win-win situation for me.

    That’s my planning process for 2017. Tell me, do you plan for the upcoming year? If so, what’s your process? I’d love to hear about it.

    Until next time,

    MsWalton

     

     

     

     

     

  • The Complexities of Life

    All About Self in 2016

    The Recovering Pessimist: All About SELF in 2016. -- I need to focus on being self-reliant, self-confident, etc. | www.therecoveringpessimist.me #amwritng #recoveringpessimist #optimisticpessimistThis year’s mantra developed on a whim. For the past couple of months, I’ve been brainstorming ideas for this year’s mantra. Nothing seemed to stick out. While washing my hands, one word literally invaded my thoughts:

    SELF

    Immediately, realizes this was my 2016 mantra, I dried my hands, grabbed pen & paper, and started expanding on that idea. Here are a few that immediately came to mind:

    Self-aware, self-reliant, self-confident, self-care

    All four of the above things are necessary if I am to accomplish all the goals I made while prepping for 2016. I’ve also struggled with all four above things in 2015. This is probably why I haven’t accomplished as much as I could have this year. That stops now.

    [bctt tweet=”Knowing is half the battle. When you know better, you do better. “]

  • Blogging,  The Complexities of Life

    How I’m Prepping for 2016

    The Recovering Pessimist: How I'm Prepping for 2016 -- The best thing about the end of the year is planning for the next year. | www.therecoveringpessimist.me #amwriting #recoveringpessimist #optimisticpessimistThe countdown to 2016 is in full swing. I’m excited for the new year. I haven’t accomplished all of my goals for 2015, but that’s okay. I accomplished things that I never imagined I would do.

    [bctt tweet=”One of the best things about entering a new year is the prep work involved.”]

    There are a few things I need to get done before Jan 1st rolls around. Here are a few things on my agenda:

     

    Create a theme for 2016.
    • When I decided that “Let That Shit Go” would be the theme for 2015, I had no idea how profound it would be. As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t accomplished all the goals I set for 2015. What I did accomplish was letting go of a lot of dead weight. Hopefully, the theme/mantra for 2016 will be just as effective.
    Write goals using goal cards.
    Create vision board.
    • Every year around this time, I see countless articles/tweets/Facebook posts about vision boards. In the next couple of weeks, I’m going to gather all of my supplies and create a vision board. Since I don’t have an actual office space, I’m going to frame the vision board and hang it in my living room as art.
    Plan blogging breaks. 
    • I’ve never taken a scheduled break from this blog. I’m always working on it in some aspect, which then leads to burnout. Once I get burned out, it’s very hard for me to regain the momentum I had before burnout set in. I’m scheduling breaks from the blog so that I can truly relax without worrying about this blog.

    Preparation gives me a blueprint to work with and  we all know how important organization is when you have so many things you want to accomplish. Are you making plans for 2016? What tools are you using to plan for the new year? Leave a comment and let’s discuss!

     

    Edited November 23, 2016